SIU welcomes Special Tribunal order on Nkoana-Mashabane land matter

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has welcomed last month’s Special Tribunal order that declared former rural development and land reform minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane's land reform lease agreement with Cultiver Investments irregular and unlawful.

The lease agreement between the department and Cultiver was signed on January 11 2019.

The tribunal also directed its registrar to “convene a case management meeting with the parties to determine the further conduct of the matter for the determination of the appropriate consequential remedy”. 

SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said the unit approached the tribunal after it emerged that Nkoana-Mashabane had ordered the department “to conclude a lease agreement for a chicken farm in Limpopo”. 

“The agreement was concluded despite three independent forensic reports advising against the lease. Surprisingly, neither the department nor Nkoana-Mashabane had challenged the SIU’s civil action.

“In January 2019, Nkoana-Mashabane ordered the department to conclude a lease agreement with Cultiver, as a beneficiary on its provincial land acquisition strategy programme, to run operations of Mike’s Chicken.

“The lease agreement followed an agreement reached between Cultiver and Nkoana-Mashabane for the former to withdraw a high court application on condition that the department will sign a lease agreement,” Kganyago said.

The court application sought to compel the department to conclude a lease agreement after the expiry of a one-year caretaker agreement with Cultiver in relation to Mike’s Chicken farm.

In May 2013, the department and Mike's Chicken had reached an agreement for the sale of nine immovable properties. These included chicken hatchery farms the department acquired as a going concern for about R137m. The department appointed Cultiver as a caretaker.

It then decided against the lease agreement after three independent forensic reports commissioned by the department, under then minister Gugile Nkwinti, found that there were irregularities in the approval process for the acquisition of Mike’s Chicken and no due diligence was conducted on the project.

In March 2019, the SIU was made aware of the department's U-turn earlier that year under Nkoana-Mashabane's leadership. This sparked an investigation into “the circumstances under which the decisions were made”.

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